Survival after surgery for bone metastases in the pelvis and extremities

Introduction The assessment of the prognosis for the individual patient is important for the choice of surgical treatment of skeletal metastases. In 1999 the Scandinavian Sarcoma Group (SSG) initiated the Skeletal Metastasis Register as a multicentric, prospective study to provide a scientific basis for treatment recommen dations. To improve prognostication we analyzed the survival of patients with skeletal metastases surgically treated at 9 SSG centres. Patients and methods 460 patients with an average age of 64 years underwent 501 operations for non-spinal skeletal metastases. 7 % were operated for more than one metastasis. Carcinoma of the breast, prostate, kidney and lung were the dominating primary tumors. Results The survival rate was 0.4 at 1 year, 0.3 at 2 years and 0.2 at 3 years. Univariate analysis showed that survival was related to bone localization, skeletal metastatic load, presence of visceral metastases, Karnofsky performance score, primary tumor type, presence of a complete pathological fracture and preoperative hemoglobin content. Multivariate regression analysis showed that pathological fracture, visceral metastases, haemoglobin content < 7 mmol/L and lung cancer were negative prognostic factors for survival. Myeloma was the sole positive prognostic factor for survival.